The Health Impact of Smoking and Obesity and What to Do About It.

This book is a compilation of a number of reports produced as a result of the British Columbia Healthy Living Alliance project in 2004, designed to develop a program to prevent chronic illness in that province. There are actually three parts to the book. The first part looks at targets to measure and improve health care, but then you need to have identifiable interventions for all disease, in this case particularly related to smoking. The last part reviews many solutions to the problem of being overweight, ranging from major marketing programs related to diet to an increase in physical activity in schools, work, and family environments. Unhealthy eating habits, the percentage of citizens who smoke, and physical inactivity are the curses of any society.

In order for all this to happen, government must find a way to maintain momentum over a long period of time and provide the leadership needed to do so.

Krueger, Williams, Kaminsky, and McLean have produced an extremely well researched book which can be effectively used as a reference for health promoters and policy makers or as a textbook for undergraduate or graduate students in the health promotion field. Hippocrates’ quote at the beginning of the book—“the function of protecting and developing health must rank even above that of restoring it when Impaired”—was definitely a goal of these researchers and a hope for the future.